Residents of Sunyani, the Bono regional capital, are having to grapple with price variations for basic commodities and consumables as the Ghanaian economy struggles to stabilise the cedi against major foreign currencies.
Buyers could not come to terms with the different range of prices quoted for basic commodities of the same brands with prices increasing by the day.
Some traders are taking undue advantage of the current economic crisis to cash-in on consumers, as some of them sell their items at exorbitant prices.
Some buyers at the Sunyani Central Business District (CBD) told the Ghana News Agency that they were ‘extremely’ unhappy about the uncontrolled prices of food items and other consumables and, therefore, appealed to the government to step in with price control measures.
Basic items such as sugar, oil, rice, toothpaste, soap, detergents, medicines, and other consumables of the same brands had all witnessed sharp increases, selling at unstandardised prices at the various shops and stores at the CBD.
The situation is not different at some satellite markets in the capital, including the popular Masommasom Market and the Sunyani Main Market.
A cup of sugar is selling between GHC5.50 and GHC6.50 cedis at different shops, while toothpaste of the same brand is pegged at GHC9.50 pesewas and GHC11.00
The GNA gathered that cooking oil, rice and sugar are the most affected, selling at highest prices.
Madam Veronica Agyeiwaa, a trader in rice and cooking oil, said high inflation, depreciation of the cedi to the US dollar, and hikes in petroleum prices had contributed to the high prices of goods and services.
She noted that the high prices of goods and services has had a direct toll on prices of cooked food and beverages.
Hausa koko (porridge) and koose, Fante kenkey, roasted yam and plantain, among other delicacies are no longer “a poor man’s food” as one needs about three to five cedis to buy, Frank Afriyie, a student, said.
He said Ghanaians were facing challenging times and the authorities must intervene to control the exorbitant prices that basic commodities were being sold at.
